


Tell Him About It

by princessgongjunim (MyOwnCharacterInEverything)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Babysitting, Bad Matchmaking, Crushes, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, Getting Together, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Self-Indulgent, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 18:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19978297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyOwnCharacterInEverything/pseuds/princessgongjunim
Summary: Welcome to High School, where a babysitting club doubles as a meeting place for matchmaking children and a refuge for the panicked gays that don't know how to communicate normally.Or, alternatively: how a bunch of couples got together just in time for Valentine's Day. Some of these arcs are more dramatic than others, but hey, at least they're all happy.Oh, and the kids are cute too.





	Tell Him About It

Johnny was so goddamn screwed.

 _Whipped as fuck_ , Jaehyun would have said.

And even though his cousin was right, Johnny still did not appreciate the reminder. Because yes, Johnny was whipped. He was mature enough to admit that much, but he did not like the implication that he only did this for Taeyong. That was just so, _so wrong_.

Johnny _loved_ their business. Taeyong’s idea of babysitting from two years ago was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Because Johnny _loved_ kids. There was absolutely nothing like coloring books at cluttered tables, dino-shaped nuggets and their staining sauces, cramming his giant self into tiny places because the kids insisted he played hide-and-seek. Hell, he even loved sitting in a parking lot, waiting for—

“Johnny!” a voice interrupted in English. “I brought you lunch—”

Johnny looked up sheepishly at Jaehyun, meeting his cousin’s gaze. “Um. Hi, Jae.”

“Dude,” Jaehyun scowled. “Is that a sandwich shaped like a koala?”

Johnny looked down at the sandwich, which was now missing an ear. “I mean, it _was_ a koala…” He could feel the blood rushing to his face. “Yongie yelled at me last night. He found out that you usually get me fast food for lunch on Saturdays, and he was like, ‘ _Why didn’t you tell me you needed a lunch?_ ’ So this morning, he made me a lunch alongside Mark’s and Haechan’s.”

“Dude,” Jaehyun said again. “Dude, that’s so domestic, what the hell?”

“ _I know_ ,” Johnny whined. “He’s _so cute_ , it’s _torture_ , Jae.”

“You say this every single day. And every single day I tell you to ask him out. And every single day you tell me, ‘ _It’s not that easy, Jae_ ,’ and then we’re back to square one, where we’ve been for the past—”

Suddenly, two familiar little heads were charging at Johnny.

“Johnny- _hyung_!” Chenle and Jisung squealed, each hugging one of Johnny’s legs.

“Wow, no one cares that I’m here,” Jaehyun said playfully in Korean. “I’m hurt.” He even gave an exaggerated pout.

Jisung had the grace to look at least a little apologetic, but Chenle spotted the fast food bag in Jaehyun’s hand.

“What’s in there?” he asked a little too innocently.

“Chicken nuggets and french fries,” Jaehyun replied.

Chenle looked thoughtful. “If we give you a hug, do we get the food?”

Jaehyun pretended to think about it. “I suppose that would be fair. But you two have to share.”

“Silly Jaehyun- _hyung_. We _always_ share.”

“I wonder if they’ll still think that ten years from now,” Johnny muttered in English. as he went to go start the car.

“Well, then,” Jaehyun said in Korean. “It sounds like we have a deal, Chenle- _ssi_.”

Chenle grinned and stuck his hand out to shake hands with Jaehyun. After the handshake, he and Jisung gave Jaehyun a quick hug before taking the bag of food and eagerly began sticking their tiny hands in it.

“Come on, you two,” Jaehyun said, pulling some hand sanitizer out of his pocket. “Put this on your hands first, and then we can go.”

When he and the kids piled into Johnny’s car, Johnny frowned at Jaehyun.

“Yongie would kill you for ruining their appetite,” Johnny said in English.

Jaehyun just shrugged. “I mean, you weren’t going to eat it, so…”

“Also, why are you getting in the car? Don’t you have to go to the puppy café?”

“Not today,” Jaehyun replied. “Julie’s still new, so they wanted her to try out a shift at Puppucino without me helping her.”

Johnny frowned a little at that logic. “My sister doesn’t really need that extra practice.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Jaehyun agreed. “But Jessica’s the manager, and I guess she and Krystal wanted to kidnap her for some girl time or something. Amber works today too.”

Johnny nodded. That sounded like something Jaehyun’s sisters would do, and knowing Krystal, she probably got Amber to go along with it. Johnny then glanced at the rearview mirror to begin backing out of the parking space, only to see the two kids in the back, carefully trying to evenly split the French fries. Chenle was saying something to Jisung in Chinese, and Jisung was nodding along, like he understood Chenle perfectly. (Though really, with how much time those two spent together, it probably shouldn't have been surprising that Jisung had managed to pick up _something_ from it.) Jaehyun vaguely recognized the Chinese word for parents, but other than that… Jaehyun shook his head. If he didn’t know any better, he would have said those two were planning something. But they were babies, so they couldn’t have been…right?

“Hey!” Johnny suddenly called, and the kids froze. “Did you put your seatbelts on, you two?”

Jisung and Chenle scrambled to put on their seatbelts, and Jaehyun snorted. “Dude, you’re such a dad.”

“And you’re the uncle that spoils them too much,” Johnny shot back, pulling the car out of the parking space.

“Hell yeah I am.”

“Your kids are gonna be such spoiled brats.”

“Bold of you to assume I’ll have kids.”

“Jaehyun, look, I know you think you’ll never get married, but—”

“I’m just saying! I’d be the best uncle ever—”

Johnny rolled his eyes, and such was the argument, until they reached the house.

“You really shouldn’t be so pessimistic,” Johnny said, the kids rushing past them to start pawing noisily at the front door knob.

“Oh please,” Jaehyun scoffed. “It’s not like I can just waltz in someplace, and suddenly, a wild piece of marriage material appears—"

But of course—because what else is supposed to happen—that was when the front door swung open, and Jaehyun basically died.

“Oh hey, Doyoung,” Johnny said. “Where’s Taeyongie?”

But before Doyoung could answer, Chenle and Jisung barreled into Doyoung to hug him, and Doyoung’s resting bitch face—Christ, why did Jaehyun find that sexy?—melted into a gummy smile complete with adorable bunny teeth.

_Oh no! Doyoung used ‘cute and also hot!’ It's super effective!_

“He's at home with a fever,” Doyoung replied after telling the kids to put their stuff away. “Apparently, he couldn't even get out of bed this morning. I thought _you_ of all people would know that.”

Johnny cussed under his breath and shook his head. “Taeyongie never tells me when he’s sick. He knows that I would make him stay home. But he’s too stubborn to put his own health above taking care of the kids.”

Doyoung huffed. “Well, he must be feeling awful then, if he was desperate enough to call me in…” Just then, there was a burst of noise somewhere in the house, undoubtedly caused by the kids. Doyoung sighed. “If you’re going to see him, tell him to text me. I don’t know how he’s doing now, but he sounded awful when he called me this morning.”

“Yeah…” Johnny said, suddenly noticing a distinct lack of cousin in the space next to him. “In fact, I'll go do that now. Take care, Doie.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes as he closed the door. “I _told_ Taeyong- _hyung_ to stop calling me that, and now it's spreading…”

The minute the house door closed, Johnny walked back to the car, where—lo and behold—he found Jaehyun screaming. And Johnny wanted to laugh, because he had only seen his cousin like this twice before.

The first time was when Kim Gongmyung had helped freshman Jaehyun open his locker. 

The second time, when Moon Taeil had been jogging through their neighborhood.

And now, here they were, having just seen Gongmyung’s little brother and Taeil’s choir protege, and Johnny wondered a bit at the concept of fate.

The minute Johnny climbed into the car, Jaehyun was grabbing his arm and shaking him.

“Take me to Taeyong,” Jaehyun demanded. “Take me to Taeyong! I'm having a crisis…”

Johnny really wasn't surprised.

* * *

“No, Jae,” Taeyong sniffled.

“Aw, come on, please?”

“Jae, the reason Johnny and I didn’t hire you as a babysitter is because you’d let the kids stay up and play video games.” Taeyong sneezed, and in the blink of an eye, Johnny was right there with a box of tissues and a garbage can.

“Thanks,” Taeyong said, tossing the tissues into the garbage can. Without even looking up, and without either of them saying anything, Taeyong took a squirt of hand sanitizer from a bottle that Johnny apparently just _had_.

“I’ll go make you soup,” Johnny said, setting down the garbage can and kissing Taeyong on his sweaty forehead. But of course, before Taeyong could say anything, Johnny went _yeet_ out of the room.

Jaehyun watched Taeyong’s face turn bright red and sighed. He'd tried to talk to both of them before about clearly mutual feelings. He knew that if he asked Taeyong about it, Taeyong would say that Johnny had always been more affectionate whenever Taeyong was sick. And if he asked Johnny about how red Taeyong was after he did it, Johnny would blame it on Taeyong's fever. It was just hopeless as they were.

 _God, they’re both seniors now. I swear, if they’re not at least dating by the end of the year_ —

“Anyway,” Taeyong said, clearing his throat. “You're having a crisis.”

Jaehyun wished he was surprised, but Johnny pretty much shared everything with Taeyong, so…

“The guy that was there instead of you today?” Jaehyun said. “He was so cute, like, _please_ let me spend more time with him—”

“Jae,” said Taeyong, “that was Kim Doyoung. Gongmyung's little brother? Taeil's choir successor?”

Jaehyun blinked. “No way. Dorky Dongyoung? _That_ was Dorky Dongyoung?! But he’s so—”

“So what?”

“ _Hot_ ,” Jaehyun hissed. “Like, when the actual _fuck_ did that happen?”

“Probably when you were in America for middle school.”

“Christ,” Jaehyun hissed, pacing a hole into the floor. Suddenly, he dropped into a crouch, burying his face in his hands and sighing loudly.

“...Jae?”

“Yeah, _hyung_?” Jaehyun replied, not lifting his head out of his hands.

“I already know,” Taeyong said. “About the crush you had on him before you left for America.”

_Of course he does._

“ _Dammit, Johnny_ ,” Jaehyun hissed, his hands falling from his face. “Is nothing sacred anymore?”

“To be fair, I was just asking him why you quit choir in middle school,” Taeyong looked at him seriously for a bit. “You were trying to get over him, weren't you?”

“Yeah…” Jaehyun sighed, feeling a little defeated and small as he stood up again. “The basketball, the working out… I just wanted to do the opposite of everything that reminded me of him…”

“You know,” Taeyong said after a beat of silence. “Doyoung thinks you never noticed him.”

“In high school, yeah, that's probably true. But…you don't really forget your first love…”

“Dude, that's gay.”

Jaehyun threw his hands up. “ _Johnny, how long have you been standing there?!_ ”

“Long enough,” Johnny replied. “And I've been thinking it over…”

“Oh?” Taeyong sounded terribly interested. But then again, Taeyong always sounded terribly interested in the things Johnny had to say.

“And I've decided to let you help out—”

Taeyong's eyes widened. “Johnny, _what—_?”

“ _However_ ,” Johnny barreled on. “You're going to be supervised.”

Jaehyun blinked. “Supervised?”

Taeyong's eyes lit up. “By none other than Doyoung himself! _Johnny, you genius, I could kiss you_ …”

Johnny stared, and Taeyong, with wide fearful eyes, stared back. Then finally, ever so softly, Johnny asked. “Why don't you?”

Taeyong spluttered. “W-well! I mean! I don't want to get you sick!”

Johnny strode over to Taeyong, cupped his face, and gently brushed a thumb across Taeyong's lips.

“I think I’ll take that chance.”

At the sight of his cousin making out with his hopefully-finally-officially-boyfriend, Jaehyun suddenly felt like he was the sick one. Now, it was his turn to _yeet_ himself out of the room.

* * *

A glance over his shoulder as he opened his locker. Listening for footsteps echoing down the empty hallway. Checking around corners and into classrooms. Maybe Kun looked a little crazy, but such precautions were necessary, especially if he wanted to avoid—

“Hey Kun!”

 _Dammit_.

Kun forced a smile. “Hey Ten…”

Ten, who had been jogging to catch up, slowed to a stop in front of Kun. “Hey, so. I just wanted to ask you…”

_Oh no, here it comes…_

“What did we have for homework today?”

Kun barely suppressed a sigh. “Just reading to the end of the chapter and finishing the rest of that worksheet.”

_Can he just pay attention in class for goddamn once?_

“Right, thanks,” Ten laughed a little breathlessly, a little flushed.

 _Ha, that’s what happens when you run in the halls_.

“Hey, there’s a basketball game tonight. I’m going to be there. Are you coming?”

Kun blinked. “You’re captain of the cheer team. Aren’t you _supposed_ to be there?”

“Well! I mean…” Ten huffed. “Still. Are you coming?”

“Oh! I, um, can’t. I have to, um…give my dog a bath today.”

Ten frowned. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

He didn’t. But honestly, considering how often Kun washed the mud out of soccer uniforms, it may as well have been true.

“Um, yeah. I, uh, just…got her?”

“Oh, really? What’s her name?”

Just then, Kun saw Winwin coming out of the mathletes. Oh god, he was saved!

“ _NicetalkingtoyouTenbutIgottagonowBYE!_ ”

And with that, Kun ran to catch up with Winwin, beginning to talk to him loudly in Chinese and pointedly not looking back.

“Um,” Ten blinked. “Okay? Bye?”

But even though he managed to escape out into the parking lot, Kun wasn’t free of his Ten-themed struggles just yet. As soon as he and Winwin drove away, Winwin asked a question that he really, _really_ didn’t want to answer.

“Why do you treat him like that?”

Kun blinked, deciding to play dumb. “Who?”

It didn’t work, as Kun knew it wouldn’t.

“You avoid Ten- _ge_ ,” Winwin insisted. “Why?”

Kun sighed. “Look, I… He keeps asking what I do outside of school, and I _really_ don’t want him to know that I babysit.”

“Why not?”

“ _Because_ ,” Kun gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I love those kids. More than I probably should. And I just don’t think that Ten would be that great of an influence. I mean, if he’s not responsible enough to keep track of his own homework, what benefit would the kids get from running into him?”

“Kun- _ge_ …” Winwin sighed. “He’s not as bad as you think he is.”

And realistically, Kun knew that was probably true. But it was just _easier_ to think of the pretty and popular Ten as someone not worth his time. It was _easier_ to think of Ten and himself as being in different leagues. Because if Ten was an amazing person on top of all those looks and money… No. Ten was probably a spoiled brat. He _had_ to be.

“Maybe not,” Kun said. “But I’m not taking any chances.”

* * *

“Nice work out there today, boys!”

“Thank you, Yuta- _hyung_!” the soccer team of eight-year-olds chorused.

And goodness did he love the wide little grins he got in response. Being an assistant coach was such an amazing experience, even if there were a few problems in personality clash. Sometimes Hyunjin fought with Han Jisung, and sometimes Seungmin tried to strangle Felix because of his constant Fortnite dances. And for some reason, Jaemin didn’t really like Renjun, and he kept dragging Jeno away from the soccer team’s newest member. Haechan, in turn, really didn’t like Jaemin, which really wasn’t surprising. Haechan was quite protective of Renjun, so of course Haechan was going to hate anyone that hated Renjun.

Speaking of Renjun…

“Yuta- _hyung_?” Renjun looked a little shy as he shuffled forward.

Yuta stopped folding the towels to crouch down to Renjun’s level. “What is it, bud?”

“Did…did you mean it?” he asked. “When you said we did a good job?”

Yuta smiled, and he couldn’t help but ruffle Renjun’s hair. “Of course I meant it. And don’t tell anyone, but you, Renjunnie? I’m _especially_ proud of _you_.”

Renjun beamed. “Thank you, _hyung!_ ”

“Anytime, bud.”

As cute as that moment was, it was about to be shattered by a whirlwind of gay panic, because suddenly, Renjun yelled, “Sicheng- _ge_!”

And Yuta could only watch in barely suppressed horror as he learned that Renjunnie's beloved Sicheng- _ge_ was none other than Winwin: the school's prettiest cheerleader, their best mathlete, and the boy of Yuta's dreams.

_Well, shit._

In the midst of the soft lilt of Chinese conversation, Yuta’s crisis was interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone.

“Hello?” Winwin answered, but then the color drained from his face. “Bambam? Why are you call from—? What? _No_ , really? Is Minghao okay...? Oh, thank goodness… Wait, _what_? Bambam, I _know_ I'm the only other person that knows Minghao's part of the routine, but… Ugh, fine… It's okay. It's not your fault. I'll figure something out… Yeah, see you later." Winwin hung up the phone, a torn look on his face.

_Alright, Yuta. This is your chance. Don't be awkward!_

"Everything alright?" he managed, sounding a hell of a lot calmer than he felt.

Winwin sighed. "Minghao sprained his ankle in gym class today, so I'm going to have to step in for him. Which is fine, but…" His gaze settled on Renjun, who was quietly staring back up at him. "I'm worried about Renjun."

"Sicheng- _ge_ ," Renjun said. "It's okay." (And that was basically all the Chinese Yuta knew. He really should take Kun up on those Chinese lessons.)

"It's _not_ okay," Winwin was saying. "Not when I promised _jiějiě_ I'd watch you—"

"If I may?" Yuta interrupted nervously. "I have friends that babysit…”

“Oh?” Winwin asked, raising a perfect eyebrow, and Yuta choked a little at being noticed by his crush for the first time in Japanese history.

 _Fucking focus, dude_.

“It’s true!” said Haechan, materializing out of nowhere. “Johnny- _hyung_ is the bestest babysitter ever, and Taeyongie- _hyung_ makes the best snacks!” He grabbed Renjun’s hand and began bouncing eagerly. “Kun- _hyung_ can drive us, and Renjunnie can sleep over with me! _Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase??????_ ”

Winwin blinked a few times. “Well, since it’s Taeyong- _hyung_ feeding you—”

And anything else Winwin might have said was immediately drowned out by the sound of celebrating children. Kun, who had arrived to hear just enough of the conversation, simply sighed.

“Alright, you two,” he said, trying to herd the excited pair out towards the parking lot. “We better get going. I’m sure you both have plenty of homework to do.” Kun then turned to Winwin. “But what about you? If I drive you after dropping off the kids, you’re going to be late.”

“It’s okay. Yuta- _hyung_ can drive me”—Yuta choked on his water—“can’t you?”

Winwin turned his hopeful eyes towards Yuta, who was desperately trying to recover from coughing and spluttering. And to keep himself from telling his precious Winnie that _you could ask for my dignity, pooh bear, and I would gladly give it to you._

Instead, Yuta managed to say. “Oh! Yeah, sure I can do that. I was headed to the game tonight anyway.” (He really wasn't, but shit happens, and plans change. And besides, he would be _damned_ if he rejected Winnie for a night alone with anime.)

"Good!" Winwin beamed, and _oh God, Winwin, you could ask me to drive you to Hawaii, and I would do it._ "I knew I could count on you!"

Yuta may or may not have died.

* * *

“Did you notice that?” Renjun hissed.

“Notice what?” Haechan asked. He was still a little miffed that Jaemin scored a goal on him while he was playing goalie, but whatever.

“Yuta- _hyung_! He looked like Taeyong- _hyung_ whenever Johnny- _hyung_ is in the room!”

Haechan frowned. “You’re right… And he looked weird when he suggested you come home with me and Kun- _hyung_.”

“You’re not going home though. We’re going to your cousin’s house.”

“Only because Yuta- _hyung_ mentioned Johnny- _hyung_ ’s babysitting thing.”

“Yeah,” Renjun scowled. “But _why_ , though?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” replied Haechan. “Yuta- _hyung_ is in love with your cousin!”

Renjun stared. “...are you kidding me?”

“Why would I be kidding?!”

“ _Because_ ,” Renjun hissed again, "Sicheng- _ge_ thinks he's cute too!"

"Wait, for real?!"

"Yeah! He always talks about how funny it is when he looks Yuta- _hyung_ at from across the room because apparently, Yuta- _hyung_ gets so flustered he has a meltdown."

“Interesting…” Haechan said. He didn’t say anything else, but the look on Renjun’s face said he knew what Haechan was thinking. Haechan had _plans_.

“Alright, you two,” Kun said suddenly. “Let’s get inside. Taeyong has to go with Johnny to his basketball game, so after we get your homework done, Taeyong will give you dinner. I’ll be here to tuck you into bed.”

The rest of the evening was uneventful. Kun helped them with their homework, Taeyong fed them dinner, and Johnny let them pick one movie before bed. After dinner, Kun gently led them to the living room, setting up the movies as Renjun set up the cushions and blankets. (Haechan stayed in the kitchen with Taeyong to help with dessert and popcorn.)

“Kun- _ge_?” Renjun asked suddenly.

“What is it, Renjun?”

“People are supposed to be nice to each other right?”

“Well, of course. Life would be rather sad if everyone was mean, don’t you think?”

“But what if people are mean when they talk about other people, even though they pretend to be nice when they talk to each other?”

Kun froze. “What…? Why do you ask?”

“Because Haechan keeps acting weird around Jaemin from our soccer team. They got into a fight last week, and Yuta- _ge_ decided that they were going to be practice partners until our next game. So they say super nice things to each other, but they both sound so fake, and I just don’t get it…” Renjun looked up at Kun with questioning eyes. “Isn’t it bad? I mean, it’s better if you tell an annoying person that you don’t like them than pretending to be nice, right?”

Kun looked like he didn’t know what the answer was either, but before he could say anything, Haechan came back to the kitchen with cookies and popcorn, and fortunately for Kun, the conversation was lost to the eventual sleepy cuddling on the couch.

Haechan’s sleepy brain heard the noises made elsewhere in the house from the living room. Even with the movie playing, he could still hear Kun and Renjun’s soft snores, Johnny’s music from upstairs as he got dressed for his basketball game, and Taeyong in the kitchen washing dishes. It was peaceful, until suddenly, the front door opened, and a tired Mark sighed as he stepped into the house. There weren’t very many interesting words exchanged as Taeyong greeted Mark and served him some late dinner leftovers, until Mark asked a strange question.

“How did you and Johnny- _hyung_ stay friends?”

A pause. “That’s an unusual question. Why do you ask?”

Mark sighed. “I just… I feel like shit. We started a poetry unit in our Literature class today, and I wrote a terrible poem on purpose. Because I didn’t care, you know? And I thought it’d be something I could laugh about with Xuxi later. But like… His poem was so deep and thoughtful, and it turns out that his mom writes poetry on the side, and he writes poems in a journal whenever he thinks of her. And here I was, dicking around with something he cares so much about—”

Mark choked up, and Taeyong spoke up softly. “Let me guess. You didn’t know about the journal or his mom’s hobby, and now you feel like you don’t know him at all?”

“Well, yeah, that,” Mark replied. “But it’s not just that. It’s about his brother too. Xuxi was so excited for the rest of his family to back in with him and his dad. And just… Hearing him speak Chinese with Hendery… How much do I actually know about him? I’ve been calling him my best friend for three years, but now that we’re in high school, and I’m doing band, and he’s doing basketball, and I thought we were gonna do mathletes together, but—”

“Mark,” Taeyong said gently. “If that’s how you feel, maybe you should try something new. All those things you didn’t know he liked? Maybe try one of those. Join a club. Who knows? Maybe you’ll wind up loving it too.”

“Is that how you wound up in dance? Because Johnny did it for fun?”

“That it is,” Taeyong chuckled. “And now he says I’m better at it than he is. But seriously, Mark. If your friendship is meant to last, you will both find ways to keep it.”

A brief silence, but it was eventually broken by Mark’s soft “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Mark. Now come on. I’ll wake Kun up from his nap, and then you can come with Johnny and me to the basketball game. I’ll even buy you ice cream…” 

_Man_ , Haechan thought sleepily. _High school must be exhausting_.

* * *

Jungwoo was not the type to be a whippedass gay. He wasn’t Yuta- _hyung_ , dammit. Jungwoo had always been the one that asked people out, flirted his way in, charmed the bravest of boys into spluttering messes. He wasn’t _supposed_ to be the desperate underclassman, drooling over a handsome senior standing down the hallway— 

“Why don’t you just be yourself and tell him how you feel?”

Jungwoo scoffed, slamming his locker door shut. “Thanks for the life lesson, Little Miss Disney channel. How’s _your_ repressed love life doing?”

Julie’s expression turned dangerous. “I don’t know, Jungwoo, how’s your parents’ divorce?”

“Oof, below the belt, Jules—”

“Hey, Julie?”

Julie’s attitude did a complete 180 as she turned to face the boy who had approached them. “Oh! Um. Jungkook. Hi.”

“Hey,” Jungkook said again. “Um. Listen, so, about later…”

“Oh,” Julie hid her disappointment well. “Um, what about it? Do you need to ditch or something? Because, you know, it’s fine if you do—”

“W-what? No!” Jungkook explained. “I wouldn’t leave you to do everything by yourself! I…was just wondering… if I could—” He must have choked on something, because he suddenly stopped there.

Julie tilted her head. “If you could…what?”

“Could we…maybe get coffee someplace? Like, the library is fine, but like, they don’t allow food and stuff, so I was thinking—”

Julie blinked. “I don’t drink coffee.” She continued talking, completely oblivious to the fact that Jungkook looked like he just messed up. “But if you want, we could work on our project at my cousin’s puppy café. I mean, technically, it’s owned by my cousin’s fiancé, but—”

“Perfect!” Jungkook squeaked. “That’s. Actually perfect, and um… Could I have your number? Just. So you know. You can send me the address later?”

“Oh! Right… Yeah, sure, um.” Julie fumbled with her backpack, pulling out a Sharpie from a back pocket. Uncapping it, she suddenly froze. “Uh, do you have paper or something?”

“Oh, no, I just… You know, what? Here,” Jungkook said, holding out his wrist. “You can just write it on my arm.”

“Oh…” Julie blinked. “Um. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Jungkook replied, watching Julie gingerly take his hand and begin to write. “I’d pull out, like, actual paper, but I need to head to class soon. I just wanted to make sure I talked to you at some point today, since I forgot to ask for your number in class this morning—”

“Oh no, don’t worry about it!” Julie said quickly, carefully finishing the last few numbers on his arm. “Sorry, it's a little messy, but, um, yeah.”

“Alright. Yeah. Cool. Thanks.”

“No, yeah. Totally.”

The minute Jungkook was out of earshot, Julie sighed as she recapped the Sharpie. “Welp. Guess I’m texting Tyler about this. Jess would freak out and make a big deal out of it.” Julie noticed Jungwoo staring at her. “What?”

“That was painful to watch.”

“Shut the fuck up, Woo—”

“Jeon Jungkook, the most popular jock in our honors and AP classes, the love of your life since you were thirteen—”

“He is _not_ the love of my life—!”

“—just asked you on a date.”

“It is _not_ a date! Literally the only reason he’s talking to me now is because of this stupid poetry project—”

“Uh huh.”

“He’s never given me the time of day before this—”

“Mm-hmm.”

“...it is not date. It is _so_ not a date!”

“Yup.”

See, this Jungwoo was the normal Jungwoo. He was always the confident one: in his friendships, in his flirting, in everything. And yet later at rehearsal, when Moon Taeil at mentioned needing help directing a kids’ choir on the weekends, Jungwoo practically threw himself at the chance to spend more time with _the_ Moon Taeil—

(“Woo, that’s a bad idea.”

“No, it’s genius! What are you talking about?”

“Woo, you hate kids.”

“This ain’t about them! It’s about the love of my life!”

“You’re literally just in this for Moon Taeil’s ass and legs, but go off I guess.”)

But there was another reason why he chose this route of investigation. See, a number of years ago, Moon Taeil’s family married into another one, and long story short, he now had stepsiblings. One of these stepsiblings was Liu Yangyang, and Jungwoo’s rationale was that if he got close to the kid, he could get close to Moon Taeil. And in order to get closer to a kid without creepily targeting a specific one, he had to start with children in general.

There was absolutely no way this could go wrong.

Except the first thing that Jungwoo saw when he walked into the choir room was one kid strangling another. There was another kid that was trying to climb out the window, and yet another was screaming and running away from yet another one. It was loud, it was chaotic…

And yet the minute Moon Taeil came into the room, they scrambled into their seats.

“Good morning, everyone!” Taeil’s smile was angelic in the face of screaming demons.

“Good morning, Mr. Moon,” the children chorused.

“What was that?” Taeil asked.

“Good morning, Mr. Moon!” they repeated themselves, louder this time.

“I can’t hear you!”

“GOOD MORNING, MR. MOON!”

Jungwoo flinched at the noise, but Taeil’s smile widened. “Alright, so as you all know, Leeteuk- _ssi_ broke his leg, so he won’t be able to join us for practices. But don’t worry! I have brought two people to help us. Everyone please welcome Chanyeol- _ssi_ and Jungwoo- _ssi_.”

The practice itself actually wasn’t that bad. As Taeil led each song and Chanyeol played the piano, all Jungwoo had to do—since he remembered all the songs he himself sang in middle school—was sing the songs loudly enough that the kids had a confident voice to follow.

(“Wait, so, what do I have to do, Taeil- _ssi_?

“All you have to do is sit back and look pretty. Which shouldn’t be hard for you, right?”

Now, Jungwoo was already choking on his gay at that, but the killer move was when Taeil looked back at him over his shoulder and said:

“By the way, you can call me _hyung_.”

Julie left his keyboard smash on read.)

But of course, everything changed when one of the children’s parents came in with cake and snacks to surprise one of the kids on their birthday, while another brought an arts and crafts project for them to do. One thing lead to another, and. Well. That was how Jungwoo went home covered in peanut butter and glitter, with a pounding headache and ears still ringing from screaming.

“I hate kids.”

* * *

Doyoung was pissed. He was going to kill Johnny and Taeyong later. The request, when they had asked for it, sounded so simple.

“Do you mind taking Jeno and his friends to the zoo?” Taeyong asked. “Jessica and Tyler had wedding plans today, so we promised to watch Puppucino while they’re busy. We _would_ have asked Kun, but apparently he’s bringing Xiaojun and Hendery to theatre rehearsal. Not to mention that Mark also asked Kun to teach him Chinese? For some reason? Either way, you’ll help out, right?"

And Doyoung, being weak for Jeno and a romantic at heart, accepted the task easily. But he should have known there would be a catch.

“What other animals do you guys want to see today?” Jaehyun was asking, and Doyoung could feel himself getting more and more irritated as Jaehyun led the kids around the zoo, agreeing with every single suggestion they made. For one thing, all of the suggested exhibits were far away from each other. Not only would it be a lot of walking, it would also be a lot of time. Did Jaehyun expect to spend all day here? Because Doyoung didn’t exactly bring a lot of money along with him…

It was Johnny and Taeyong’s fault that he was stuck in front of a smelly elephant pit to begin with. It was their fault that he was stuck with the sound of children loudly cheering for cotton candy at 10am. And it was their fault he was stuck with _Jung fucking Jaehyun_ smiling his _stupid dimpled smile_ as he bought them the sugary clouds of pointless calories.

“You have to share, though,” Jaehyun warned them.

“Of course we will!” Chenle grinned, his two front teeth adorably missing. And with that he moved to tear off a piece of cotton candy.

“Wait a second, Lele,” Jaehyun said. “All of you, actually.” Jaehyun pulled hand sanitizer out of his pocket.

Fuck. The zoo map crumpled in Doyoung’s grip. _He actually thought of cleaning off their hands before I did. What the hell?_

Whatever. It didn’t matter now. So as soon as the kids finished their cotton candy, he stood up and gathered their garbage while Jaehyun organized the kids into lines.

“Everyone pick a partner and hold hands,” Jaehyun told them. “That way, no one gets lost.” And Doyoung braced himself for chaos, especially when Jeno shyly asked Renjun to be his partner. But to his surprise, Haechan and Jaemin were tightly holding hands without so much as a word to each other.

They weren’t happy about it, but they still did it.

So it was Haechan with Jaemin, Jeno with Renjun, and Chenle with Jisung. Jaehyun told Yangyang that he was special, and that's why he got to hold hands with Jaehyun instead.

“But Uncle Jaehyun”—why the _fuck_ did they call him that?!—“Doyoung- _hyung_ doesn’t have anyone to hold!”

Doyoung half-expected the universe to fuck with him, for Jaehyun to give his _stupid fucking perfect smirk_ and cheekily suggest that Doyoung hold his other hand instead.

Instead, Jaehyun smiled and said, “Doyoung- _ssi_ is the oldest of all of us, even older than me. That’s why he’s in charge of holding the map instead.”

Jaehyun was being a gentleman. _Why the fuck did that make him a little sad?_

“The most important thing,” Jaehyun said as he led the ducklings (yes, he bought them all duck hats) to the aquarium, “is that we are on time.”

“Whoooaaaaa~” Chenle and Jisung chorused, pointing at the giant blue building.

“Is this where the dolphin show is?” Yangyang asked.

“Yes, it is!” Jaehyun grinned. “You know, the dolphin show was my favorite as a kid.”

“Look, Renjunnie!” Jeno pointed at a poster outside the aquarium. “Look! There’s penguins in here.”

“Oh, that would be fun to see for Valentine’s Day,” Jaehyun said. “Did you know penguins mate for life? They find another penguin to love and stay with forever.”

“Do you think we’ll be like that, Lele?” Jisung asked quietly. “Will we be together forever?”

“Of course, we will, silly!” Chenle grinned. “We love each other. Why wouldn’t we be?”

Renjun, meanwhile, raised his hand like he was in class, completely oblivious to the look of vague horror on Doyoung’s face. “Uncle Jaehyun? What’s Valentine’s Day?”

“It’s an American holiday, where you do nice things for your special somebody.”

“Nice things? Like what?”

“Like kissing and hugging?” Jaemin chimed in.

“It depends on the person,” Jaehyun chuckled. “Maybe you give candy or flowers. Maybe you take them to dinner or go out for the day. It can be a fun holiday, when you have a special somebody. Some people use it as a chance to confess to their crush.”

“Ooh, have you ever gotten anything from any pretty girls?” Haechan teased.

“Or pretty boys!” Yangyang added. “My Taeil- _hyung_ likes girls _and_ boys!”

Doyoung braced himself for an arrogant smirk and a list of past loves, but instead, Jaehyun’s laugh was slightly sad. “Ah, not really. My birthday is the same day as Valentine’s Day, so usually, when I get presents, it’s for my birthday, not because someone thinks I’m special.”

“Really?” Jaemin sounded sad. “We should fix that!”

“It’s alright,” Jaehyun said. “I don’t need a boyfriend or girlfriend. I have all of _you_.”

And Doyoung could have handled that much: Jung Jaehyun being good with kids. But where it all went wrong was when it was time for lunch. Jaehyun had asked him to help the kids find a table for all of them, only for Doyoung to find out too late that not only had Jaehyun paid for all the kids, he had also ordered and paid for Doyoung as well.

When Doyoung mentioned it later—not in front of the kids, of course—to ask how to pay him back, Jaehyun just smiled his _stupid fucking smile_ and walked away.

 _That bastard. That absolute bastard, fuck him._ Doyoung was _so_ going to murder that richass bitch one of these days.

“Doyoung- _hyung_?” Jeno asked suddenly. “Why do you look so mad?”

Doyoung blinked and zoned back in, plastering on a smile. “I’m not mad, Jeno- _yah_. It’s just hot”—Doyoung could feel Jaehyun’s smirk—"and the sun is in my eyes," he added quickly. When Jeno turned back to Renjun, Doyoung scowled at Jaehyun’s backside, which was now leading the ducklings to the aviary.

 _What an ass_.

* * *

“Xuxi? What’s wrong?”

Lucas blinked up from his salad to look at Yuqi. “What?”

“Oh, I know that look,” Hendery smirked. “It’s the look he gets when he’s upset and thinking about Mark.”

Lucas scowled at his brother. “Alright, listen, man—”

“No, _you_ listen to _me_. You’ve been like this for about half a week now. What’s going on?”

Lucas sighed. “Well…Mark’s been acting kind of… _weird_ lately.”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean…these days, he keeps telling me he can’t meet up after school. Something about practicing his music? But his band practices are at the same time as my basketball practices, so on the days we’re free, we always hang out. But we haven’t really done that in a while, and I can’t think of any reason why he would avoid me. He still comes to my games and stuff, and I see him during school, but like…” Lucas looked a little sad. “Would it be weird for me to say that I miss him?”

“I don’t think so,” Xiaojun said softly. “You don’t see him as much as you used to. You’re still adjusting. And that’s okay.” Xiaojun bit into his sandwich, staring at it like it was a little _too_ interesting. “And for the record, I think he misses you too.”

Hendery tilted his head. “Since when did you hang out with Mark?”

“We have guitar studio together.”

“Huh,” Hendery said, carefully chewing a single French fry. “I forgot about that.”

Just then, two more people sat down at their lunch table.

“ _Ah-Lu_ ,” Winwin said. “Are you excited for the game tonight? Because I certainly am.”

“You’re awfully chipper,” Ten said, raising an eyebrow at Winwin.

Winwin just shrugged, a happy little smile on his lips. “Remember when you guys thought that Nakamoto Yuta didn’t like me back? Turns out he’s just a panicked gay and had no idea how to talk to me. He gets so flustered. It’s so cute.”

“Glad there’s at least _one_ happy ending among us,” Ten grumbled into his coffee.

“Aw,” Hendery grinned. “Did Kun- _ge_ reject you again?”

“I don’t know what his problem is!” Ten exclaimed. “Everytime I talk to him, he looks like he would rather be literally anywhere else!”

Xiaojun raised an unsympathetic eyebrow. “Have you ever considered that—oh, I don’t know—maybe he just doesn’t like you?”

“Ridiculous!” Ten scoffed, only half-joking. “Everybody _loves_ me—”

“You’re just mad because this is the first person in your life to ever say you ‘no’ to you.”

“What are you even trying to get him to do anyway?” Lucas asked, shoveling more salad into his mouth.

“Hang out," Ten replied. "Except I’ve given up on asking him to study with me. I think he’s convinced I would only use him for good grades or something.”

Little Yuqi tilted her head like a confused puppy. “Have you ever tried talking to him about something other than school? Maybe you should do that.”

“I did!” Ten whined. “He told me he had to give his dog a bath after school, so I asked him what the dog’s name was—”

Winwin frowned. “Kun- _ge_ doesn’t _have_ a dog.”

“...why would he lie to me?”

Winwin sighed. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but technically, Kun has a second job. He helps out with that babysitting service. You know, with Johnny- _hyung_ and Taeyong- _hyung_ and Doyoung- _hyung_?”

A silence fell over the table, with all the other occupants watching Ten carefully to see what he would do. Finally, Ten looked up, a determined look on his face.

“What’s the address? And when is he usually there?”

* * *

“Uggggghhhhhhhhh,” Jungwoo groaned, flopping down at their usual lunch table.

Julie sighed, swallowing a mouthful of sandwich. “What now, Woo? What happened this time?”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this choir thing was gonna be a bad idea? I _hate_ kids…”

Julie paused mid-next-bite. “Dude,” Julie said, putting her sandwich down and going into lecture mode. “ _I_ said it was a bad idea. So did Vernon. And Kevin. And Woojin from your choir class. When Chris overheard us during theatre rehearsal, _he_ said it was a bad idea, and he barely even knows you! Hell, even _Lee Minho_ said it was a bad idea, and he doesn’t give a shit about anything _anyone_ does.”

“Yeah, well,” Jungwoo spluttered. “Why didn’t any of you stop me?!”

“Because it would be like trying to stop the armies of hell from breaking down the doors of death,” Minho deadpanned around a mouthful of banana, not even looking up from turning the page of his book.

Kevin Moon, who had just sat down, looked concerned. “Dude, are you okay?”

“When is Minho ever okay?” Julie scoffed.

“Well,” Kevin said. “That’s kind of mean…”

“I’m always mean.”

“ _Guys_ ,” Jungwoo snapped. “Can we get back to my crisis, please?”

Julie snorted. “You mean your crazy, devious plan to get into Kevin’s cousin’s pants?”

“ _Can we not talk about my cousin’s pants please?_ ”

“Alright, _fine_ ,” Minho—of all people—said, slamming his book shut for emphasis. “I’m only going to get involved because I know if I don’t, Jungwoo won’t shut up about it for the next month and a half. What you need, Jungwoo, is an actual way to connect with him. You can’t just be in the same place he is all the time and hope something happens. That’s not how making an impression on someone works. I mean, you've been on mathletes with him for how long? And what has that done for you?”

(For the record, Jungwoo loved mathletes. Moon Taeil was just a bonus.)

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Kevin sighed. “But you’re going to have to do something different. My cousin, for all his talent and intelligence, is probably the most oblivious person on the face of the planet.”

Jungwoo nodded slowly.

“You gotta change it up, dumbass,” Minho said. “This isn’t a fanfiction. Real life needs a— Julie, what’s with the face?”

Julie, who was raising her eyebrows, shrugged. “Well, I just don’t think it’d be a smart idea for you to keep going to that choir. You said yourself it was a bad idea, so I think you should just quit while you’re ahead—”

Even Minho jumped when Jungwoo suddenly pounded his fist on the table.

“You know what?” Jungwoo demanded, standing up. “I’m going to prove you wrong. I’m going to keep helping Taeil- _hyung_ , I’m going to keep seeing those kids, and I’m going to _love_ it. Just you wait!”

 _Exeunt Jungwoo. Quite dramatically, mind you_.

“Julie?” Minho asked. “What did you do that for?”

She only gave a wicked smirk, and the other 98-liners were suddenly reminded of how and why, at the end of the day, it was _Julie_ who was Jungwoo’s best friend.

“One of these days,” Julie said, “He’ll learn the consequences of his own actions. Until then, I’m just going to keep goading him into following through with all of his terrible ideas. Bonus points with telling him he can’t do it: if he takes the challenge, then it’s completely his fault for being stubborn and doing it anyway.”

“Hey gays,” Vernon said, finally showing up. “What’s up?”

“I’m asexua—” Julie frowned. “What the _hell_ are you wearing?”

Vernon looked down at himself. “What’s wrong with tie-dye?”

“ _Everything_. It's hard on the eyes, especially in our 8am math class,” Minho wrinkled his nose. “You know what? Since Jungwoo’s busy chasing dick on the weekends now, we should give you a makeover."

“You know, that could actually be fun!" Kevin said. "We could make a whole thing and throw in some lunch too."

"Guys…" Vernon mumbled. "I don't need this…"

"Aw, come on, Valentine's Day is coming up. We can pretend it's for that!"

“No, seriously, I don’t—”

Julie grinned, slinging an arm around Vernon's shoulders. "Don't worry, Vern. We'll help you snag a boo."

“You’re one to be talking, Jules,” Kevin said. “You’ve been on how many dates with your boy, and he’s _still_ not your boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boy! And they’re not dates! We’re doing a poetry project! I’ve told you this!”

“Ooh, writing poems together,” Minho smirked. “Ain’t that cute as hell.”

“ _Minho shut the hell up_ —”

But while his friends were squabbling amongst themselves, Vernon thought over his next course of action. He knew what would happen if he protested too much. He loved his friends; he really did. But they would poke and prod, wheedle and plead, until he caved and told them things he wasn’t ready to admit, not even to himself. And so he sighed instead. The only thing he could do now without talking about his feelings was accept his fate.

Besides, shopping couldn’t possibly be _that_ bad, right?

* * *

“ _Hyung_?”

Jungwoo looked up from his phone, surprised to see Yangyang. “Oh? What is it?”

Yangyang nervously toed the ground, looking around to see if people were listening. “Can I talk to you about something? Just because”—Yangyang huffed—“I don’t know who else to talk to! If I told the others, they would just get mad, and if I told Taeil- _hyung_ , he would get super worried, and I just—”

“Whoa, hang on,” Jungwoo said, mostly because he didn’t think Yangyang even knew who he was. “What are you talking about?”

Yangyang huffed again. “It’s…stupid.” And uh oh. Now there was an awkward person hiding their true feelings if Jungwoo had ever seen one. And if befriending sassy Julie and savage Minho had taught Jungwoo anything, it was getting people to speak truthfully about themselves.

“Yangyang,” Jungwoo said gently. “If it wasn’t a big deal, it wouldn’t be bothering you.”

A pause, then a deep breath. “It’s just… I’m on the soccer team, and… You know Lee Jeno? He hangs around Na Jaemin, and all their friends?”

“I do, actually,” Jungwoo replied. “My best friend is Julie, and her older brother Johnny drives them to your practices sometimes.”

Yangyang nodded and continued. “It used to be that Jeno and Jaemin were best friends and always together. I would play with Haechan sometimes, but he would usually play his _hyung_ Taeyong and his cousins. But when Renjun moved into town, things changed. Jeno decided that he wanted to welcome the new kid. Which was fine and all! But I don’t think Jaemin was very happy about it. I guess Jeno giving all his attention to someone else is weird for him.

“But at least I was happy for Haechan! He and Renjun have been best friends ever since Haechan dumped a bucket of sand on some other kid that was making fun of Renjun’s Korean. But with Jeno suddenly following Renjun everywhere, Haechan wasn’t happy about it. Jaemin keeps trying to get Renjun away from Jeno, so Haechan doesn’t like that. But I don’t think he likes Jeno either. He seems upset about how much Jeno loves Renjun too.

“I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just so tired of all this crap. I just want to play soccer!” Yangyang whined. “Nobody works as a team anymore, and I’m sick of it!”

Now, Jungwoo really shouldn’t have been so invested in the life and times of a bunch of eight-year-olds. But he was a sucker for drama in all its forms, and so, he couldn’t help but get curious. And because he had absolutely zero impulse control, he eventually assembled the four problematic eight-year-olds together over a picnic table of fast food one day, when Yangyang was at his dance class. Fancying himself like a James Bond villain, Jungwoo let the children finish their food before pulling out a box of cookies.

All four hellchildren, in the middle of chatting and squabbling amongst themselves, immediately perked up at the sight of the box’s familiar packaging.

“Is that Julie- _noona_ ’s famous chocolate chip peanut butter cookies?”

“Why, yes,” Jungwoo replied. “I picked them up from Puppucino this morning.” And of course, the kids all immediately began clamoring for a cookie, but Jungwoo immediately took the box back. “You only get a cookie if you can be honest about your feelings.

Jaemin looked terrified all of a sudden. “W-what?”

“I’ve heard it said”—because Jungwoo wasn’t going to snitch on Yangyang—“that your personal feelings are tearing your soccer team apart. And so, I have decided that I ought to teach you: the importance of being earnest.”

 _Thank god Julie wasn’t there to smack him for the godawful theatre joke_.

“Earnest?” Jaemin asked.

“It means being honest with your feelings, stupid.”

“Donghyuck!” Jeno squawked. “That’s mean!”

“We’re supposed to be honest with our feelings, right? Well, I’ll go first. I hate all of you. Except for you, Renjunnie. You’re an angel, and I’m glad you’re here.” Haechan turned back to Jeno. “And I don’t think you’re gonna tell me that I’m wrong for saying that about Renjunnie. You’re super duper nice to him too.”

“W-well, I can’t help it!” Jeno exclaimed. “He’s so cute! I just want to squish him and give him sweets and—” Jeno suddenly turned pink.

“You sound like you have a crush,” Haechan said. “You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

 _Oh, absolutely,_ Jungwoo almost said. But he was supposed to be the responsible _hyung_ here. He was going to let them do the talking; he was just facilitating the conversation.

“He does _not_ have a crush!” Jaemin shouted, suddenly standing up with clenched fists. “He _can’t_! It just—” Jaemin cut himself off and huffed. 

“Remember, Jaemin- _ah,_ ” Haechan said mockingly. “We have to be honest about our feelings. And I don’t think you’ve been honestly happy since Renjun moved to town.”

Jeno looked _floored_. “Really? I mean, I knew you didn’t like Renjun, but I didn't think you were sad about it! You kept saying you were fine with it!" Jeno watched as Jaemin squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists in frustration.

“It’s not fair!” Jaemin whined suddenly. “It was always me and you. And you and me. So why do you love Renjun so much? What can he do that I can’t? Is it because he can speak Chinese? Is it because he can sing? He’s stupidly perfect, and _it’s not fair._ ”

Renjun blinked, and in a quiet voice, he asked, “Is that why you don’t like me, Jaemin? Because you’re jealous?”

Jaemin looked like he wanted to scream, shout, _fight_. And for a second, Jungwoo got scared because _fuck,_ _I am not qualified to be a children’s counselor._

But in the end, Jaemin just sighed and hung his head in shame. “Being jealous isn’t a very nice thing, is it?”

“Maybe not,” Jungwoo said. “But jealousy is only dangerous if you hurt other people with it. Otherwise, it’s a perfectly normal feeling. You just have to manage it in a healthy way.”

It was silent for a bit, as they all let that sink in. It was a nice day, after all. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and—

“I hate being the reason everyone is fighting,” Renjun said suddenly. Jeno and Jaemin tensed.

“But it’s not your fault!” Haechan was quick to say. “You can’t control what other people think or feel!”

“But still!” Renjun said. “I wish we could all get along. I wish we could all just be happy and have fun.” Renjun’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I wish we were all comfortable enough to talk to each other directly.”

It was quiet again, as if no one knew what to say to that. And it stayed that way, until suddenly, Haechan quietly admitted:

“I have a crush on Jeno.”

Jeno blinked at the Haechan. Once. Twice. “...what?” he squeaked.

"What?" Renjun parroted.

" _What?_ " Jaemin squawked.

Haechan nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said, avoiding Jeno's gaze. "It's actually why I joined the soccer team. Because I was hoping to be friends. But that didn't happen, so..."

"Donghyuck- _ah_ ," Renjun said, softly taking Haechan's hand. "Why didn't you tell me? I've just been talking about how annoying he is—"

“Because!” Haechan’s eyes were suddenly filled with frustrated tears. “Jeno was always with Jaemin. There was never room for me before. But now?” Haechan sniffed. “I know I shouldn’t be jealous, but you're _my_ best friend, Renjunnie. Why does it _you_ get to be the one that gets noticed by Jeno? It’s not _fair_.”

"Donghyuck- _ah_." Renjun had started crying too. He wrapped his arms around Haechan, squeezing him close. "I'm so sorry—"

" _Don't,_ " Haechan replied softly, squeezing him back. "It's not your fault. You didn't know."

“But still!” Renjun cried. “I’ve been so mean—”

“No, you haven’t,” Jeno was quick to reassure him. “You kept telling me you wanted to spend time with other people. I should have respected that”—he turned to Jaemin—“and I shouldn’t have ignored you so much.” He then turned to Haechan. “I’m sorry I kept trying to pull Renjun away from you. But if it’s okay? I’d like to get to know you better too.”

Haechan looked appropriately pink. “Oh. Okay.” He stuck out his hand. “Friends?”

Jeno grinned, shaking Haechan’s hand. “Friends.”

Then, Haechan turned to Jaemin. “I’m also sorry for being mean to you. You didn’t deserve it—”

“I think we were both pretty terrible to each other.” Jaemin stuck out his own hand. “Truce?”

“Truce,” Haechan agreed. And they both shook on it. With all of that said and done, Jungwoo handed out the cookies, stealing one for himself.

He deserved it, after all, for a job well done.

(“You should have seen them, Jules. I’m telling you: polyamory solves everything!”

“Woo, they’re literally eight!”

“ _Shhh, let me be proud of my four gay sons_.”

"This is why I'm never going to let you babysit my kids."

"You mean the ones you'll have with Jungkook?"

"I SAID SHUT UP!")

* * *

Lately, Doyoung’s patience had grown thinner and thinner.

Every single time Doyoung was in charge of the kids, Jaehyun was there. And every single time Jaehyun was there, the kids got to do something crazy. One day, it was taking the kids fishing and hiking. When they came home, Doyoung had been left to gather all their muddied clothes and throw them in the washing machines.

Another time, Haechan had sprained his ankle playing basketball at the park, and so Doyoung nearly went out of his mind when a bunch of hysterical children tearfully told them they were calling him from the hospital.

Doyoung could have forgiven it. Really. He could have. After all, as much as he was loath to admit, Jaehyun wasn’t a bad guy. He took it upon himself to mop up dirtied floors and drove Haechan to the emergency room.

But this? This was Doyoung’s breaking point.

Today was Jisung’s birthday, and so Doyoung had been fretting all morning: picking up cake, buying ingredients to make lunch, getting a present and wrapping it, choosing the perfect card to go with it…

Only to come in the house to the sight of Jaehyun throwing a pizza party in the living room, in front of a TV hooked up to a giant MarioKart tournament.

Doyoung couldn’t take it anymore. He padded, softly as you please, into the kitchen to throw the groceries onto the counter. (Not that he had to be that soft, the children in the next room were being rather loud.) He charged out the door and was halfway down the driveway when he heard his name being called. He didn’t dare turn around, but he tried walking faster—

Unfortunately, Jaehyun was running, and so he managed to grab Doyoung’s arm to stop him. “Hey, where are you going?” he asked, sounding genuinely confused and—if Doyoung didn’t know any better—a little hurt.

Doyoung yanked his arm out of Jaehyun’s grip. “There’s a cake on the counter,” Doyoung said instead, his tone flatter than his hopes and dreams. He pointedly kept his gaze on the ground away from Jaehyun. “I also got him a present. It should be there too.” He turned and kept walking, shoving his hands in his pockets and not really caring where he was going as long as it was away from _him_.

“Doyoung- _hyung_ ,” Jaehyun called, starting to scurry after him. “Are you mad at me?”

Was he mad? _Was he mad, was he fucking kidding_ —? Doyoung stopped in the middle of the road to glare at him fiercely.

“Everything was fine,” Doyoung hissed. “ _Everything_ was _fine_ , until _you_ showed up.”

Jaehyun blinked, bristling infinitesimally. “Excuse me?”

“ _You,_ ” Doyoung shoved a finger in Jaehyun’s face. “You keep _spoiling_ the kids, _giving_ them treats… You know that’s not healthy? You need to _teach_ them, Jaehyun. When was the last time I saw them doing homework? Oh, _that’s_ right. It was _before_ you started showing up.”

“They’re _kids_ ,” Jaehyun snapped. “They’re allowed to have fun—”

“But they also need to learn responsibility,” Doyoung said.

“Doyoung—”

“ _No._ ” Closing his eyes, Doyoung took a deep breath, counted to three, and exhaled. When he opened his eyes again, he stared pointedly at Jaehyun. “I’m going to let handle the kids for the rest of the day. Because _mark my words_ , Jung Jaehyun. The next time it’s my turn to babysit, I don’t ever want to see your face anywhere near them ever again. Do you hear?”

He didn’t even wait for a response as he spun on his heel and marched away, ignoring Jaehyun as he tried to get Doyoung to come back.

Little did they notice the five little eight-year-old heads sticking out of the porch front door, staring as one of their hyungs yelled at the other in the middle of the street.

* * *

Jungwoo struggled to catch his breath. “Sorry I’m late!”

Gongmyung turned to grin down at him from up on a ladder. “Don’t worry, Jungwoo- _ah_! Julie- _yah_ just got here as well. Now grab some tape and help me please.”

Jungwoo picked up a roll of tape and tore off a strip. “Are you nervous, _hyung_?” Jungwoo asked, sticking the ends of the tape together to make a loop and handing it to Gongmyung.

“Honestly?” Gongmyung said, taping up the last corner of a giant banner that read “Prom?” in giant lettering. “Kind of. I mean, this is kind of a public thing, what with the banner and everything. It’s so early, too! So I won’t blame her if she says no—”

“She won’t,” Jungwoo cut him off. “She’ll love it. And call you extra as shit, like always.”

“Hey, Jungwoo,” Julie said. “I texted the theatre group chat, and Hyesung- _noona_ should be coming soon. I’m gonna go out to the parking lot, since Johnny’s here with the cake. I should be back before she gets here, but I need you to distract her in case I’m not.”

And that was why Moon Taeil found Jungwoo pacing up and down the hallway.

“Oh, Jungwoo!” Taeil said. He sounded strange. “Um. What are you doing?”

“ _Hyung_! There’s gonna be a promposal. Isn’t this exciting? I can’t wait for you to see it!”

“Yeah,” Taeil said, still sounding strange. “I’m sure she’s going to love it.”

“She’s coming! Come on!"

"What—?" But Taeil was pulled right against Jungwoo as they hid away from view, and for the first time, Taeil couldn't help but notice the size difference between himself and Jungwoo. Taeil shook his head, zoning back in to see Jungwoo texting.

“Alright,” Jungwoo whispered, and why did Taeil feel the need to suppress a shiver. “So on my signal, we’re going to get up behind her and push her into the choir room.”

Taeil blinked. “Isn’t that mean—?"

“Now!” Jungwoo hissed, leaping out behind the girl and tying a blindfold—where did he get that?—around the girl’s eyes.

“Hyesung- _noona_ ,” Jungwoo said. “Gongmyung- _hyung_ has a surprise for you. If you could follow me please?” And when Hyesung agreed, he began gently guiding her to the choir room, with Taeil hesitantly following them

Hyesung? What was she doing here? She was supposed to be in rehearsal right now—

“Surprise!” A chorus of shouts greeted Hyesung as Jungwoo removed the blindfold. And Taeil watched as Hyesung’s gaze went from the giant banner, to the posters around the room, to her boyfriend holding a cake decorated with candles that spelled out _PROM?_ After a stunned pause, she laughed and said yes, moving into the room to celebrate with her (very relieved) boyfriend.

Now that their work was done, Jungwoo led Julie and Taeil back out into the hallway.

“We did it!” Jungwoo squealed, picking up a startled Julie and spinning her around. “We did our good deed for the day!”

“Jungwoo?” Julie sighed down at him. “I love you, but please. Put me down.”

The clatter of a box and thel swish of plants. And further down the hallway stood Jeon Jungkook, looking strangely put together for someone who was supposed to have been from basketball practice. He stared at Julie and Jungwoo, a box of chocolates and a bouquet of flowers at his feet.

“Oh, Jungkook!” Julie said, as if suddenly noticing him there. She untangled herself from Jungwoo and began walking towards him. “What are you doing here?”

Jungkook suddenly looked panicked. “Um, I—”

“Why do you have flowers?” She picked them up and tilting her head at them. “They’re beautiful!” she said reverently, gently stroking them between her fingers.“I’m sure the lucky person will love them…”

“Well, uh,” Jungkook cleared his throat awkwardly. “How have you been?”

Julie blinked at the question, suddenly looking up from intently examining the flowers. “Fine. You?”

“Yeah, me too…”

An awkward silence.

“So…” Julie laughed nervously. “That poetry project, huh?”

“Yeah. It was. Great. Yeah.”

“It was…” Julie said, sighing and toeing the floor, hands clasped behind her back. “You know, Jungkook, I really liked spending time with you—”

“I really like being your friend!” Jungkook blurted.

Julie stared, and Jungkook stared helplessly back.

“...oh,” she said softly. “Yeah. Me too. It’s. Nice.”

Even more silence.

“Oh my _god,_ ” Jungwoo exclaimed. “Fuck it, I’m fixing this.”

“Jungwoo, what are you doing?” Taeil asked as Jungwoo began marching towards the blundering pair…

“Look,” Jungwoo snapped. “Are you saying, Jeon Jungkook, that you only asked out Julie to coffee because you were assigned partners?”

“Well, _yes_ ,” Jungkook replied with gritted teeth. “We had a project together. I don’t really care what she does outside of that.”

Hurt flashed across Julie’s eyes, but Jungwoo had seen this coming. That didn’t mean he wanted to roll his eyes any less, however.

“Don’t care, do you?” Jungwoo raised an eyebrow. “Alrighty, then.” With a shrug, Jungwoo grabbed his best friend and pulled her into a kiss.

Now, here’s the thing about Jungwoo and Julie. They were romantically incompatible in virtually every way possible. Jungwoo was very, _very_ gay freewheeler, whereas Julie was asexual and far, _far_ too jealous for a polyamorous relationship.

This did not mean, however, that they weren’t comfortable kissing each other. And because, at the end of the day, Jungwoo was a considerate person, he held Julie loosely enough that if she wanted to, she could pull back.

But before she could pull back, Jungwoo was pulled off of Julie and roughly thrown to the floor by a very, _very_ pained-looking Jungkook. Taeil materialized next to Jungwoo and pulled back him up.

“That was quite mean,” he chided softly.

Meanwhile, an angry Jungkook whirled on Jungwoo. “What the hell was that?” he growled.

Jungwoo just smirked back. “You said you didn’t care.”

Jungkook froze, and Julie’s expression changed from shock, to realization, to the widest fucking Cheshire grin on the face of the planet.

“You _baby_!” she screamed. “You absolute _baby_!”

If it was possible, Jungkook looked even more terrified than before. “What?” he croaked.

“You like me!” she squealed. “You don’t like other people kissing me! You like me, you great big jealous bab—”

Julie was immediately shut up by Jungkook kissing her, and the flowers fell to the floor once more. The kiss started out fairly normal, but they both grew more and more aggressive, as if the floodgates of their true feelings had finally been opened. They were both breathless when they finally parted, and Jungkook watched her expression carefully for any sort of negative reaction. And Jungwoo knew that his best friend was in safe hands, because suddenly, Jungkook looked vaguely horrified, as if he just realized he hadn’t asked for Julie's permission before kissing her.

Julie’s eyes fluttered open, and the minute she saw Jungkook’s worried expression, she gave him the tiniest of smiles.

“Hi,” she said in a cute little voice.

Jungkook blinked. “Hi?”

Julie’s smile widened. She bent down to pick up the fallen flowers and the box of chocolates, and she gently took his hand. “Let’s go on a date.”

“Okay,” he replied. “Let’s go.”

And as they walked away, Jungwoo breathed a sigh of relief.

“Finally,” Jungwoo said. “My work here is done.”

Feeling quite proud of himself, he turned to see Taeil looking rather confused.

“So…” Taeil began awkwardly. “You’re. Not dating her?”

Jungwoo snorted. “Oh please. I would never date someone like _her_.”

Taeil blinked. “Well. That’s a little mean, don’t you think?”

And Jungwoo suddenly remembered something Kevin said, forever ago, about Taeil.

_My cousin, for all his talent and intelligence, is probably the most oblivious person on the face of the planet._

So Jungwoo looked Taeil dead in the eye and said, “ _Hyung_. I’m gay.”

* * *

Kun wasn't scared of a lot. He was always the one to kill the spiders, to get things down from trees, to head into the dark room to find the lightswitch. He was okay with tight spaces, loved roller coasters, and honestly didn’t mind giving speeches. He’d played the piano for people since he was six and sang on stage for even longer.

So why was his gut twisting at the sight of an angry Ten on the front porch?

"Kun,” Ten said tersely.

“Ten,” Kun managed to sound a lot calmer than he felt. “What are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you that,” Ten said, crossing his arms across his chest. “I’m here to see you. And I’m here for answers.”

Kun blinked. “Answers?” he asked weakly.

“Come on, Kunkun, you’re smarter than that. You’re too _smart_ to play dumb. So Kun, why have you been avoiding me?”

“Well…I…I just—”

But then something weird happened. Ten, whose eyes had been boring intently into Kun’s soul, suddenly dropped his gaze to stare at something behind Kun. Ten’s unamused gaze didn’t change, save for a single raised eyebrow. When Kun turned to see what he was looking at, there was Yangyang, holding a whoopee cushion and shuffling sheepishly away.

_Did Ten just get one of my kids to stop his shenanigans with a single glance?_

Suddenly, Kun couldn’t ignore it anymore. Ten was not the horrible influence Kun thought he was, and Kun had just refused to give him a chance. And so Kun sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “You know what? Get in here. I’m making the kids lunch. You may as well join us.”

Kun expected it to be awkward. To be stiff and to hyperfixate on the kids to avoid talking to Ten. But instead, Ten took complete charge over the kids.

“Jaemin, use a napkin, please.”

“Jeno, stop swinging your legs under the table.”

“No, Lele, you have to share with _everyone_ , not just Jisung.”

Kun managed to keep himself together. He smiled at the kids as they ate, quietly served them ice cream, and began collecting the plates to go put them in the kitchen sink. With a sigh, he started washing the dishes. He was only half-surprised when Ten joined him and began rinsing off the dishes that Kun had already soaped up.

“I put a movie on for the kids, in case you were wondering.”

Kun blinked. Honestly, it didn’t even occur to him to ask. “Since when were you so good with kids?” he asked instead.

“There’s a lot of kids in my family,” Ten shrugged, putting a plate in the dishrack and reaching for another.

Kun frowned. “I thought it was just you and your sister.”

“It is,” Ten replied. “But I do have a lot of baby cousins. I also teach a dance class. Yangyang is actually one of my students.”

Kun felt something akin to shame wash over him briefly. “In my defense,” Kun said weakly, “I don’t know you very well—”

“Because you don’t _let_ me show you who I am,” Ten cut him off. “Look, if you didn’t want to be friends, you could have just told me to fuck off—”

“That’s not—” Kun sighed. “It’s my fault, really. I”—Kun swallowed audibly—“I’m sorry.”

This time, it was Ten who frowned. “Oh, that’s it? ‘Sorry for being a jerkwad and yanking you around like you’re on a chain?’ Because if that’s what you’re apologizing for, then you can shove it up your—”

“Ten,” Kun said. A little sharply, but Kun couldn’t bring himself to care right now. “You wanted answers, and I’m trying to give them, so _please_.”

“Alright then, Mr. Sexy Rich Bitch. Go ahead and explain yourself.”

There would be time to dissect that nickname later, but for now, Kun just took a deep breath. “It’s stupid, really, but honestly? I kept you away from me for completely selfish and cowardly reasons. I told myself it was because you’d be a bad influence on the kids. My rationale was that if you couldn’t even keep track of your own homework, then you’d have nothing worthwhile to give the kids.”

Kun waited for screaming. A breakdown. For Ten to start seething and stomp away. Instead, Ten was quiet. Still upset, of course, but he wasn’t saying anything at. That, somehow, was even worse. But Ten looked pensive enough that Kun felt the need to continue. So he did.

“I think deep down, I always knew you couldn’t possibly be that bad. But…it was just _easier_ to think you were. Because you were rich. Because you were popular. Because I didn’t want to admit that I—”

Kun choked a little, realizing what he almost just said, but apparently, he was done talking. Ten had decided that it was now his turn to talk.

“First of all,” he began. “You’re rich and popular too, so if I have a shitty personality because of that, then so do you. Second of all, I didn’t think you were the type to listen to all the rumors about how bitchy I am, but here you are, making judgements before ever really getting to know me.

“And third of all?” Suddenly, Ten’s voice was a lot softer. Embarrassed, even. “I only keep asking you about homework because I didn’t think there was any other way to talk to you. You always kill the conversation if I try asking about anything else.”

Oh. _Oh_. And if Kun didn’t feel shitty before, he absolutely felt it now.

“I’m sorry,” Kun choked out.“ _Fuck_ , Ten, I’m so sorr—”

“ _No,_ ” Ten said, putting one more dish in the drying rack and shutting off the sink. Huh, Kun didn’t even notice that they’d finished all the dishes. “You don’t get to apologize.”

Kun blinked. Okay. That was fine. He deserved it, after all—

“But!” Ten continued. “I only say that because you’re smart and self-aware. There’s too much brain in that pretty head of yours for you to not have realized already that what you were doing is wrong. So I’m not going to ask you to apologize. Because”—Kun felt himself inhale sharply at the way Ten was looking at him—“you already feel bad about it. All that’s left to do is have you make it up to me.”

Kun was _floored_. “After all that…you still want to try this? Are you sure you don’t just want to say you hate me and tell me to leave you alone forever?”

And to Kun’s surprise, Ten _laughed_. “Oh, Kunkun,” he said, shaking his head and smiling down at the floor. “You’re so cute.” Ten sighed happily, bringing his gaze back up to meet Kun’s. “How about this? You take me out to coffee, and I’ll let you start over with me. Deal?” And because Ten was a ridiculous human being, he brought up his right hand like he was sealing a business deal.

Kun snorted, but he was smiling as he shook Ten’s hand. “Deal.”

“Good,” Ten said. “Now, come on. We have to get the eight-year-olds to soccer practice.”

(Neither of them noticed a pair of five-year-old eyes had peeked around the corner, widened in equal parts surprise and happiness.)

* * *

‘Twas the night before Valentine’s Day, and all through the room, it was eerily quiet. And here came Jaehyun’s impending doom.

“You know what?” Jungwoo snapped suddenly. “This is ridiculous.”

Jaehyun wasn’t fazed by the outburst. “Okay, now can you say it in English?”

“Shut up, _hyung_. You may be my English tutor, but you are also my friend. And you and I both know that you’re upset and avoiding Doyoung- _hyung._ ”

Jaehyun scowled. “Jungwoo—”

“ _No,_ ” Jungwoo stood suddenly. “We’re fixing this.”

“But he won’t even _talk_ to me.” If Jaehyun sounded a little whiny, well.

“That’s what you have me for,” Jungwoo grinned. “According to Doyoung’s mom’s Facebook, they’re taking little Jeno to go shopping for clothes for your sister’s wedding. So they’re spending the day at the mall. The other kids are there too. For moral support, I guess.”

“...why do you have his mom’s Facebook—?”

“His mom loves me, okay?”

And that was how, the next day, Jaehyun found himself with Jungwoo at the mall.

“But there are so many stores… How am I supposed to find—?”

“ _Jungwoo stop him from leaving!_ ”

Jaehyun blinked at the sound of his cousin’s voice, and the next thing he knew, Jungwoo was grabbing onto someone trying to exit a nearby store. It was Vernon, who was struggling valiantly as Jungwoo tightly gripped the sleeve of his bright yellow donut hoodie. Quickly bearing down on them was Lee Minho and Julie, each running in with new clothing on hangers. Minho had a black denim jacket, and Julie had a solid color t-shirt. Behind them, Kevin Moon was filming on his phone and trying to laugh quietly.

“Come on, Vernon,” Minho was saying. “It won’t kill you to wear something with less than two colors on it.”

Jaehyun didn’t even _want_ to know what was going on there. And so, with a sigh, he left Jungwoo to his chaotic friend group and decided to go to the food court instead.

Now, Jaehyun liked to think he was a healthy eater. He worked out, made his own smoothies, and according to Julie, he only ever talked about how he put tuna in his salad because it was high in protein and low in fat.

But today, it was his birthday, and today, he was sad, so there he sat, all alone, shoving a chicken sandwich in his face and trying not to cry. The fact that Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” was playing over the mall loudspeakers was not helping at all.

“Uncle Jaehyun?” came a tiny little voice.

Jaehyun, cheeks full of sandwich, turned to look at Jeno. “Oh. Um—”

“Uncle Jaehyun?” Jaemin materialized out of nowhere. “Are you okay?”

Choking down his current mouthful of chicken, he put down his sandwich and wiped off his hands. “You guys aren’t here by yourselves, are you?”

Jeno shook his head. “Doyoung- _hyung_ is helping Renjunnie and Yangyang buy chicken. And I think Haechannie is—”

“Right here!” Haechan said, appearing out of nowhere and strangling Jaehyun into a hug. “But what are _you_ doing here? And why do you look so messy?”

“Oh,” Jaehyun said. Honestly, when Jungwoo had shown up at his house that morning, Jaehyun had just thrown on a plain white t-shirt, some old sweats and slides on his socks. A far cry from his usual jeans and designer shirts. “Um. I—”

“Happy birthday, by the way!” Haechan barreled on. “We were worried we would never see you again! We didn’t get you anything, but I’m sure we can get you something from the—” Haechan paused. “Are…are you _crying_?”

“Duckie,” Jaehyun said, using Johnny’s nickname for him. Wordlessly, he opened his arms out for Haechan, who immediately hugged him and buried his face in Jaehyun’s shirt. Sinking down to his chair and letting Haechan climb into his lap, Jaehyun sighed at the child nuzzling into his chest and rested his chin on Haechan’s head.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Jaehyun,” Jaemin said, looking upset. “We didn’t mean to make you cry!” Hurriedly, he pulled a small packet out of his pocket, and Jaehyun vaguely recognized the free heart-shaped cookies that were being handed out for Valentine’s Day. “Here! You can have this cookie! Please don’t be sad!”

 _I’m not crying_ , Jaehyun wanted to say. _I’m not_ —

But the words got caught in his throat and instead ran tracks down his cheeks, and suddenly, Jeno was there, gently dabbing at Jaehyun’s tears with one of the fast food napkins that had been laying next to the slowly cooling chicken sandwich.

“...people don’t usually remember it’s my birthday first,” Jaehyun said after a while. “Usually, they say Happy Valentine’s Day. Which is funny, since no one really gives me gifts for Valentine’s Day. So hearing you guys talk about my birthday first…” Jaehyun sniffled. “I’m happy, I promise. Thank you.”

Haechan, who had lifted his head off Jaehyun’s chest to look at him, suddenly grinned widely. “Group hug!”

“Group hug!” Jeno and Jaemin chorused. Jaehyun closed his eyes, letting himself sink underneath the mass of excited children. And for a minute, it was almost perfect. Almost, because the one person he’d _wanted_ to see today—

“Uncle Jaehyun?” a soft voice asked. Jaehyun opened his eyes to see Renjun sheepishly holding a bouquet of flowers. Next to him, Yangyang held a slice of cake. “Happy birthday.”

“Oh god, you two,” Jaehyun squeaked. And he found himself choking up again. “Come here. Join this group hug.” And when he felt extra arms wrap around him, he relaxed again.

“Doyoung- _hyung_ is staring, you know,” Haechan whispered into the hug.

Jaehyun tried not to tense up. “Really?” he whispered back.

“He’s been sad,” Jaemin added softly. “And he looks really sorry whenever we ask if you’re coming back to visit.”

“Honestly?” Jeno said. “I think he misses you. And I think you miss him too.”

Jaehyun sighed. “I think it’s time I talk to him. Will you help me?”

Twenty minutes later, Jaehyun had finished his sandwich (and cake!), bought two coffees, and stood silently next to Doyoung as the kids happily clambered into the carousel.

“So,” Jaehyun began awkwardly, and suddenly, he was a kid again, when Doyoung was a choir nerd and Jaehyun was pining right next to him as they sang a duet for their families’ Christmas parties.

“So,” Doyoung echoed. Another pause, then Doyoung huffed again. “Jaehyun, look. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“No, you should have,” Jaehyun replied. “You were right. I was keeping you from doing your job. That was pretty shitty of me.”

“No, what was shitty was the fact that…” Doyoung wrapped both his hands around his paper coffee cup. He stared at the lid, not wanting to meet Jaehyun’s eyes. “Honestly, I was jealous.”

Well, that hadn’t been what Jaehyun was expecting. “Jealous?”

“I just—” Doyoung sighed. “You’re so good with them. They love you. You spoil them, sure, but you let them have fun. And it just… It felt like they _hated_ me in comparison. I had to be the strict one. The one that made them do their homework and eat their vegetables. And you just—”

Jaehyun let that sink in a bit. “You know, Johnny and Taeyong didn't hire me as a babysitter because they thought that I’d be bad at it.”

Doyoung looked stunned. “But you're _not_. They _love_ you. You’re always there for them, you teach them, you aren’t afraid to answer their questions—”

“And neither are you. And for what it’s worth? Those kids love you too.”

Another silence, then Doyoung admitted, quietly: “I was also jealous of how much attention you gave them. You held their hands and kissed their foreheads… You were always here for them, sure. But it felt like you barely even looked at me.”

Jaehyun could feel the blood rushing to his ears. “Well. If we’re going to be completely honest with each other, it’s because”—Jaehyun took a deep breath—“I had the biggest crush on you as a kid. And it’s only gotten worse ever since.”

He hadn’t realized that he’d closed his eyes until he startled at the sensation of Doyoung gently grasping his hand.

“Jung Jaehyun,” Doyoung said softly. Almost reverently. “Will you be my Valentine?”

Jaehyun let his eyes flutter open to the sight of Doyoung intently watching him. He smiled. “I’d love to, Kim Doyoung. I thought you’d never ask.”

* * *

“Really?” Jungkook raised an eyebrow at Julie. “You brought us to the café where we worked on our homework?”

“Oh, laugh it up, Bunnyboy. My cousins have already met you, but imagine if they found out we were out on a date.”

Jungkook blinked at her. “Bunnyboy?”

“You got a pet bunny when we started high school. You named it Cooky. After yourself.”

“...but I got her like, two years ago.”

Julie shrugged. Apparently, after confessing her feelings, she no longer had anything to hide. “I’ve liked you for a long time, Jungkook,” she said simply, like it wasn’t a big deal. “Of course I remember these things.”

Jungkook froze in the middle of opening the door to Puppucino. "Oh," he said softly, feeling oddly pleased. Then, pushing the door open, they enter the café, where another pair was enjoying a date of their own.

“You’re so pretty,” Jaehyun cooed to one of the puppies, gently rubbing his nose against her tiny cold wet one.

Doyoung huffed a little. “Well. She seems to like you a whole lot.”

Jaehyun just grinned, amused by the subtle undercurrent of jealousy in Doyoung’s voice. “Here,” he said. “You hold her.”

“W-what?” Doyoung took a step back. “But I… I don’t know how to—”

Too late. Jaehyun gave Doyoung the puppy, and before Doyoung could really think about it, he curled one arm underneath the puppy to support her weight while using his other arm to press the puppy to his chest. For her part, the little puppy wiggled her face closer to Doyoung’s, her curious little sniffs tickling him before she decided to lick his nose. He didn’t even realize he was smiling until Jaehyun looked at him with that damned dimpled smile of his.

“See?” Jaehyun said, only a tiny bit smug. “You’re a natural.”

Doyoung looked at Jaehyun’s eyes, glittering with happiness, and looked at the puppy’s shiny and hopeful eyes.

“Yuna,” he said suddenly. “I think her name is Yuna.”

Jaehyun inhaled sharply and looked down. Taking a shaky breath, he looked back up at Doyoung, eyes glittering for a different reason.

“Yuna,” he repeated. “I love it.”

At the counter, another lovely day together was just getting started.

“Oh, hi Yuta- _hyung_!” Mark exclaimed behind the counter. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, well,” Yuta scratched at the back of his head. “I’ve been busy supporting Winwinnie at all his competitions. But now that the season’s winding down…” 

“I still can’t believe you managed to snag _Dong Sicheng_ of all people.”

“Yeah,” Yuta said, smiling softly as Winwin, who just walked into the cafe with Lucas. Lucas was laughing loudly, and Winwin kept smacking his arm as he laughed along.

“Oh, look,” Yuta noted aloud. “Your boy is here too.”

“Yeah,” Mark said, just as softly. “He is mine, isn’t he…”

“We got lucky, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we did.”

By then, Winwin and Lucas had reached the counter.

“Hey, cutie,” Yuta said. “How’s the most beautiful person in the world doing today?”

Winwin just blinked down at him. “I don’t know. How _is_ the most beautiful person in the world doing today?”

And as Yuta spluttered and Winwin giggled, Mark turned to Lucas.

“Hey, stranger,” he smiled. “What can I get for you today?”

“Well,” Lucas grinned back. “Can I get a kiss from the cute boy behind the counter?”

“ _Lucas,_ ” Mark whined. “I’m working.”

“It’s alright,” Lucas replied. “You can make it up to me later.”

“Oh?” Mark raised his eyebrows, then dropped his voice three octaves. “I think I can do better than that.”

Now Lucas was the one with burning ears. “But you already write me a song. In Chinese, no less. You don’t have to.”

“I want to,” Mark said softly. “And besides, I didn’t write the song by myself. Kun- _hyung_ and Xiaojun helped me—”

“Mark, just. Please…let me love you.” And Mark just stared at Lucas, stunned by the joke made out of the song he wrote.

“That,” he said, his voice shaking with laughter, “was _not_ funny.” His wide grin said otherwise, though.

Over at a table, Gongmyung just finished telling Jungwoo and Hyesung an embarrassing story about Taeil. Taeil, for his part, was pouting into his tea as the others laughed. At another table, Ten and Kun held hands while Chenle and Jisung drew each other crayon hearts. Nearby, Johnny fed Taeyong cheesecake. And through the shop window, their little hands and noses pressed against the glass, five eight-year-olds in dirty soccer uniforms were jumping up and down excitedly.

“We did it!” they cheered. “We saved Valentine’s Day!”

And perhaps they did. Maybe they didn’t. But let’s just let them have their fun, shall we?

**Author's Note:**

> fuck, this was too goddamn long  
> and too self-indulgent  
> but at least i finished it  
> my god please just take it  
> i'm tired
> 
> i honestly don't even know if i fulfilled the original prompt because i took so many creative liberties. but here:
> 
> Prompt: johnny, taeyong, doyoung, and kun are high school/college students who love kids. in an attempt to earn more than their allowances, the four set up a baby-sitters' club.
> 
> Pairing: Any
> 
> Rating: G-T
> 
> Notes/Bonus Points: dreamies and wayv maknae line as the kids! markhyuck as the favorite of johnny and taeyong. other nct members as the friends of the bsc and trying to help, and either falling in love with the kids or just being plain bad at taking care of the kids. one character's crush/boyfriend taking care of the kids and said character thinking "oh my god, i want to marry this guy."
> 
> Do Not Include: non-con, genderbend, character death, any mentions of abuse
> 
> /////////
> 
> Questions? Comments? Concerns? Send them to my [CuriousCat](https://curiouscat.me/princessgongju1)!  
> A link to my ko-fi page can also be found in my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/princessgongju1) bio!  
> Thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you in the next one!


End file.
